Known musically as Lucy Tight, she and Pierce Ternay (aka Wayne Waxing) - a "stompgrass" duo from Philadelphia - still carry the spirit of their 16-foot minitrailer home, circa 1961, with them, though.

Along with their soon-to-be 4-year-old daughter and "big dog" (Pokie, a black Labrador), of course.

They recorded their second album - "Hymn for Her Presents Lucy & Wayne and the Amairican Stream" - in the vintage trailer during a 2010 national tour.

"It was tight, a little space," said Lucy, who'll have more room to maneuver tonight when Hymn for Her performs at Stockton's Plea for Peace Center. "It was like doing it in a closet. That made it more concise.

"More like an exclamation point instead of a dot, dot, dot. There weren't a lot of different sounds you could get by going into different rooms."

What they captured is the rough equivalent of those early 20th century field recordings captured by musicologists such as Alan Lomax and Harry Smith.

The 12 songs are gritty, organic and mostly unadorned, recorded in the 16-foot silver Airstream in Malibu; Big Sur; Venice Beach; Sarasota, Fla.; and the driveway of "Silver Pop Pop" (Wayne's dad) in Philadelphia.

They vary from straight-on "stompgrass" hoots to tender ballads - "Not," with a breathy, emotion-soaked vocal by Lucy, and "Odette," a family vocal affair and heartfelt elegy that includes a super-cute intro by their daughter, who turns 4 in April (Lucy keeps her name private).

Lucy's cigar-box guitar, which she plays lefthanded with a slide bar, is prominent. It's a fretless instrument - with a broomstick as its neck - built by John Lowe in Memphis, Tenn.

"It goes back to blues people making their own instruments," she said. "It goes back to the first cigar ever sold. Somebody said, 'See this box. We can turn it into something. Put some strings on it, stick a broom handle into it, and there you go.' Either you smoke 'em or you play 'em. I'm a smokin' player."

She also tinkers with drums, rhythm guitar, banjo, ukulele and a "little bit" of bass ("I like stringed instruments"). She'll be part of a cigar-box guitar festival in Orlando, Fla., in March.

Onstage, Lucy and Wayne deploy her throwback instrument, a bass drum, high-hat cymbal, acoustic guitar, banjo and harmonica. That's supplemented by a slide show of vintage images (1940s to '80s) assembled by Wayne's dad, Bill, and synced to their tunes.

Both from "artistic and musical" families, they met at a Philadelphia music store where Lucy was working. Wayne came in to purchase some guitar strings, and they started jamming. Lucy said they discovered a "common bond": the soft-pop group Bread. That reference prompted a simultaneous giggle. So, who knows?

Lucy said, "we've made it through our 20s" and have "been together many lifetimes," which includes 10 years in a trio - Philadelphia's MPEband (for Maggie, Pierce and E.J.)- with E.J. Simpson.

"That was very, very eclectic," Lucy said of a group that released 10 albums and "toured incessantly" (300 shows in a decade). "From Lambert, Hendricks and Ross to Frank Zappa" (no giggles).

When their daughter was born in 2007, they became a side duo - though they still team with Simpson occasionally - and "it just kind of took off on us."

It hasn' stopped.

Wayne and Simpson are childhood friends who grew up strafing out Van Halen and Led Zeppelin guitar licks.

Lucy's mother played acoustic guitar at children's parties, expanding that into a family band. Lucy didn't participate in school music groups or use another of her talents, swimming, competitively.

"I think I'm not really competitive," she said. "I don't remember ever thinking, 'This can happen.' It's just kind of, like, what I've always been doing. I love playing music. I love hearing other people play music. It's sort of like another arm. It's part of who I am."

So is the road. The Bambi Airstream is idled, but their Ford E-350 van's still running after 350,000 miles.

"It sounds like Katharine Hepburn in her later years," she said.

In addition to healthy eating, their touring family life includes regular workouts at YMCAs: "When you sit in that van for so long, ... it has its regular challenges. Sometimes it's a little harder in such tight quarters. But it's easier because we all get to be together and don't have to plan time to get together. We like being together."

They're already contemplating their next recording adventure. It'll probably be done in the cozy Airstream Bambi on a farm owned by "Lane from Maine," where Hymn for Her spends its summers.

During a 2010 trip back from Maine, they noticed a tiny Internet posting by a Massachusetts couple trying to sell their 49-year-old Airstream: "We got lucky," Lucy said. "It's beautiful. I'd been looking for one for years."

The Airstream trailer image was iconized on the cover of Ry Cooder's self-titled 1970 debut album. He's also a back-to-basics American music originalist.

"Yeah," Lucy said. "Somebody else told us about that. But he didn't record in it."